As the RCMP interrogation of London Mayor Joe Fontana wore on, the lead investigator told him the parable of a long-time federal politician who did wrong, came clean and moved on.

In stark contrast to the first hour of the interview by RCMP Const. Shawn Devine, recorded right after Fontana’s Nov. 21, 2012 arrest and played at his criminal trial Tuesday, the lengthy, friendly chit-chat is long gone.

Instead, Devine takes a stern tone with the largely silent Fontana and deftly walks him through Marconi Club records the police believe show a $1,700 federal-government cheque helped pay for Fontana’s 2005 wedding reception.

After pointed comments to the politician – “there was only one person that benefited from that $1,700, Joe, and that was Joe Fontana” – he told the story of former long-time MP Svend Robinson’s criminal woes.

Robinson, caught on camera stealing a $50,000 ring, eventually confessed to the RCMP in British Columbia, Devine tells Fontana, and he benefitted.

“He owned up to his mistake,” Devine says. “He came clean with his story. You know what happened after that story? It went away. The story fizzled out. Nobody cares anymore.

“It all went away. You know why it went away, Joe? Because he told the truth.”

Fontana, chatty and gregarious early in the video, says little as Devine tells him he believes the Marconi Club receipt for $1,700 was doctored to help pay for Fontana’s son’s wedding reception.

Monday, the trial’s opening day, Fontana lawyer Gord Cudmore said his client acknowledges there were hand-written changes to the documents, but countered that the main issue “is the purpose of that $1,700 cheque.”

It had nothing to do with a wedding reception, Cudmore said.

One change was the date of the event. The original Marconi document bears a date June 25, 2005; the one submitted to the federal government for reimbursement bears the date Feb. 25, 2004.

On that date, per government records, Fontana was in Ottawa as an MP, the Crown said.

Cudmore, however, noted that on that exact date one year later – Feb. 25, 2005 – former Liberal MP Ralph Goodale was in London, suggesting what could be an alternate explanation for the expense submission.

Fontana is charged with breach of trust, fraud under $5,000 and uttering forged documents. The trial is expected to be over Thursday; Justice Bruce Thomas plans to deliver his verdict next Friday, June 6.